Articles about the craft of writing.
A blog by Bill Johnson that explores principles of storytelling and articles about writing by other authors.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Soapstone Literary Announcements 6/14/2015

These announcements of events and opportunities of interest to the writing community have been sent to you by Soapstone. Feel free to send them on to your friends and colleagues or to invite them to join the list by signing up at:

We never lend or sell our mailing list. If you no longer wish to be on this list, you can unsubscribe by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the end.

ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE ON AN EVERY OTHER WEEK SCHEDULE.

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JUDITH BARRINGTON AT BROADWAY BOOKS ON JUNE 23rd

Broadway Books is pleased to announce that internationally renowned poet Judith Barrington will read from her newest collection, /The Conversation,/ on Tuesday, June 23^rd at 7 pm. She will be introduced by /The Oregonian/’s Poetry Editor, Kirsten Rian.

/The Conversation/ is Barrington's long-meditated dialogue with the many interlocking parts of her life, the record of her sustained career as writer, teacher, activist, and explorer of the heart's mysteries.

Barrington has published three other collections of poetry and two poetry chapbooks, a memoir, and a text on writing literary memoir which is used throughout the United States and in Australia and Europe. Her memoir, /Lifesaving/, won the Lambda Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir. Her poems have been featured by Garrison Keillor. In 2013 she was awarded the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Prize.

This event is free and open to the public. Broadway Books is located at 1714 NE Broadway, Portland. You may also visit our website: www.broadwaybooks.net .

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The New Soapstone: Celebrating Women Writers

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering two new opportunities* for readers and writers in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Small Grants to an Individual Woman or an Ad Hoc Group of Women

These funds are to support *events * and *study groups * celebrating the work of women writers. The application process is simple and the time between applying and notification short. For the first year, Soapstone board members will serve as the grant review committee.
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All events and study groups will be open to the public and offered at no charge.

Applications for the 2016 *Oregon Literary Fellowships are due Friday, June 26, 2015. Fellowships are awarded to Oregon writers in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Drama, and Young Readers Literature. Fellowships are also awarded to support Oregon's independent publishers and small presses that demonstrate a commitment to literary publishing. There is no charge to apply. Recipients are determined by a panel of out-of-state judges.

Applications may be mailed via U.S. mail or hand delivered to the Literary Arts office at 925 SW Washington in Portland.

Fellowship applications* can be found on our website. Fellowships will be awarded in the amount of $3,000.

In 2016, for the first time, Literary Arts is also offering a Writers of Color Fellowship, as part of the Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships program.

The goal of the Writers of Color Fellowship is to promote perspectives from a variety of cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, and encourage diverse writers to apply for fellowships. All applications for the Writers of Color Fellowship will also be considered for an Oregon Literary Fellowship.

The deadline to submit books for the 2016 *Oregon Book Awards *is*Friday, August 28, 2015.* Books written by Oregon writers, with an original publication date between August 1, 2014 and July 31, 2015, are eligible. Awards in 2015 will be presented in the following genres: Fiction, Poetry, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Children's Literature, Young Adult Literature, and Graphic Literature. Please note that Graphic Literature has separate eligibility guidelines. *Submission guidelines* can be found on our website.

If you have questions about how to apply for an Oregon Literary Fellowship or how to submit a book to the Oregon Book Awards, contact Susan Denning at susan@literary-arts.org or *503-227-2583 x107. The 2016 Oregon Book Awards finalists and Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients will be announced in January 2016.

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OPA's Fall Conference 2015 is at the University Place Hotel in Portland, October 2-4

We will again use the very successful format of last fall's conference at Bandon: a multi-stream mix of workshops, panels, readings, and other presentations. We'd like to hear your proposals.

Food and libation provided by Niche Wine and Art Bar, 1013 Main Street

With our featured reader, Alex Dang: Alex Dang is a member of the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Portland Poetry Slam Team competing at the National Poetry Slam and the youngest representative from Portland in the slam's history. Alex is the Eugene Grand Slam Champion of 2014 and 2015.

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On Thursday, June 25^th at 7 pm Broadway Books will host Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker and Jen Stevenson, authors of the newly published book */The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Basket to Blanket/, *a collection of their recipes and stories.
The authors will share what they consider to be the top picnic basket essentials, demonstrate secrets for making the perfect deviled eggs, and their inspiration for this ingenious and beautiful guide to all things picnic. Audience members are invited to share in the eggs and some picnic-perfect beverages!

/The Picnic/ offer guidance on everything you need to plan an effortless outdoor get-together: no-fail recipes, helpful checklists, and expert advice and includes ninety-nine uses for a Mason jar (think cocktail shaker, firefly catcher, or cookie jar), rules for scoring lawn games, and refreshing drinks to mix up in crowd-friendly batches. Let /T//he Picnic/ take the stress out of your next outdoor party and leave only the fun.
This event is free and open to the public.

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Broadway Books is pleased to host /The CSA Cookbook/ author Linda Ly on Monday June 22nd at 7 pm. This newly published book presents a no-waste, “nose to tail” approach to cooking and eating the vegetables from a Community Supported Agriculture box, farmer’s market, or backyard harvest.

Join us in learning about common food myths, the surprising parts of plants you might not have known were edible, and how to reduce waste in the kitchen by using the odds and ends from your vegetables in recipes.

Linda Ly is the blogger behind the award-winning Gardenbetty.com , named “Best in Gardening” by /Country Living/ and deemed a go-to source for all things green by HGTV. As a member of Slow Food USA, Ly delights in growing, harvesting, preserving, and cooking only food that comes from the earth. She gains endless inspiration from her modern homestead by the sea, which she shares with her husband, a pair of pugs, and a flock of chickens.

Writing Contest for Short Stories and First Chapters (fiction or nonfiction)-

The Oregon Writers Colony annual writing contests' deadline is June 22nd. Request the optional critique from their talented judges. Also, if you are among the winners, you'll increase the exposure and recognition of your writing by reading at Stumptown Lit in October, being recognized in their Eblast! and Colonygram newsletters, on their Facebook page, website, and the authors' catalog/brochure distributed by OWC at Stumptown Lit. and Wordstock. www.oregonwriterscolony.org for full details.

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Endi Bogue Hartigan, C E Putnam, Allison Cobb, James Grabill, Marilyn Stablein, Jared Hayes, Jen Coleman and dan raphael will read their work (and some others) from the new anthology, Make it True: Poetry from Cascadia. Recently published by Leaf Press in Lantzvllle BC, this book has the work of 92 poets from the region, including Sam Hamill, George Bowering, Judith Roche, Lisa Wolsak, Jim Dodge and Emily Kendall Frey. Paul Nelson, one of the editors and the director of the Cascadia Poetry festival will also be speaking. Copies of the book will be on sale. *June 24**^th **at MilePost 5, *doors open 6:30.

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WWotR Quarterly Reading – Open-Mic June 15, Corvallis, OR, where you can sign up and read your own work! Free and open to the public.

This is your chance to engage in an important aspect of the writing life — reading your work in front of others. Anyone can participate, but you have to sign up. These events often fill up, so if you want to read, it's a good idea to get there as soon after 6:15 PM as possible. The number of readers is limited. First to sign up is first to read. Each person gets 7 minutes. No graphic violence, sex, or hate speech. Please tell the audience if your piece is fiction or non-fiction, and if it is a part or whole.

Remember, this is an opportunity to read your written work. It is not meant to be an interactive forum or teaching session. A few tips to help make your performance a success:

• Time yourself beforehand.
• Speak loudly.
• Shine!

And of course an audience is also needed. So if you don't want to read, please come hear some talented writers present their work.
WWotR meets on the 3^rd Monday of each month with the exception of January when we meet the Tuesday after MLK day.
First Presbyterian Church 114 SW 8th Street (enter Dennis Hall off the 9th Street parking lot behind the church)
http://willamettewriters.com/wwotr/_See Summer Reading_

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On Tuesday, July 7th, at the Old Church in downtown Portland, celebrated author Brian Doyle comes to the *Willamette Writers* membership meeting. Doyle says “The best writers are great listeners.” So come and listen! Join us July 7th, at the Old Church, 1422 SW 11th. Celebrate our 50th year with a piece of cake and a good story, or two or three. And bring your writing implement of choice. The meeting starts at 7:00 pm. Doors open at 6:30.

Doyle is the author of fourteen books: collections of essays, two nonfiction books (The Grail, about a year in an Oregon vineyard, and The Wet Engine, about the “muddles & musics of the heart”), and two collections of “proems,” most recently Thirsty for the Joy: Australian & American Voices. His novel Mink River was published in 2010 by Oregon State University Press, followed by The Plover, (St. Martin’s Press, 2014). “The only way I can figure it out is with my fingers, so … I wrote a whopping large sea novel. I just loved Conrad and Stevenson and Jack London and Kipling and sea logs and accounts and journey and voyages and Kon Tiki and Aku Aku and I guess this is My Sea Novel bless its salty soul.”

Attendance is free to members of Willamette Writers and full time students under 25; non-members pay $10.

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*Harvest Writing Contest Open for Entries*
Central Oregon Writers Guild is accepting entries for their 8th annual Harvest Writing contest from June 1st until August 16th. The contest is open to residents of Oregon and all current members of Central Oregon Writers Guild.

This is a great opportunity to gain constructive feedback from a panel of judges, polish your writing, and possibly win.

The top 10 winners will read their entries at a special Showcase Event, to be held on the evening ofOctober 24th at the Hampton Inn and Suites, in Bend, Oregon. Winners and their winning entries will be featured in the Central Oregon Writers Guild 2015 Harvest Writing Contest Winners Collection, a book published each year following the writing contest. Winners will also receive a complimentary print copy of the book upon publication. Winners may also be featured in author presentations and readings at Central Oregon bookstores.

Entries must be 1,200 words or less, and are being accepted in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. One entry is allowed per writer and one poem per poetry entry. All submissions must be previously unpublished original works of the writer.

Full contest details, as well as online entry information, are available at www.centraloregonwritersguild.com

Questions regarding the contest may be submitted to cowgcontest@gmail.com .

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The First Draft Writers’ Series takes place at Pendleton Center for the Arts, 214 N. Main, at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month.

Free

Penelope Scambly Schott is a past winner of an Oregon Book Award in Poetry and many other prizes. Her most recent book is HOW I BECAME AN HISTORIAN. She lives in Portland and Dufur, Oregon where she teaches an annual poetry workshop.

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Broadway Books is pleased to announce that Sue Schaefer will read from her debut novel /Now I Am Here Doing This/ on Thursday, June 18th at 7 pm.

The setting is 1984 in the Pacific Northwest and Val, an unconventional mother and artist, knows she's losing her daughter Hana but doesn't know to what to do about it. A domestic detective story, /Now I Am Here Doing This/ is about mothers, daughters, art, adolescence, memory, crime, death, secrets, love, illusion, loss, and redemption.

Schaefer is a Portland artist and writer. In her most recent project she painted a sentence every Tuesday for a year from page 147 of found, random books.
/Now I Am Here Doing This/ is her first novel.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Bard Deluxe at the Oregon City Library, Thursday June 18th, 7-8pm.

The Oregon City Library will feature a reading of three of the Bards, Marj Hogan, and Oregon Literary Fellowship Winners Armin Tolentino (2014) and Laura Christina Dunn (2015). The Oregon City Library is a cultural haven and in addition to poetry has recently hosted a wide range of events including music, yoga, video game night, pajama story time and a Star Wars party. The OCL is an historic and beautiful Carnegie Library, located in Uptown, on the bluff, at 606 John Adams St., Oregon City. The current issue of The Bear Deluxe celebrates Poetry of Place. To that end, The Bear held a poetry contest and the nine winners have been published in issue #36. Each winner of the contest became a Bard Deluxe.

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PACIFIC UNIVERSITY MASTER OF FINE ARTS IN WRITING PROGRAM PRESENTS ANNUAL READING SERIES ON FOREST GROVE CAMPUS, JUNE 19-26

The Pacific University Master of Fine Arts in Writing program will once again host readings by some of America’s finest writers during its 10-day residency on the Forest Grove campus. Free and open to the public, the evening readings take place at 7:30 p.m. from Friday, June 19, through Friday, June 26, in the Taylor-Meade Performing Arts Center, which is located on campus at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Cedar Street in Forest Grove.

This event is a rare opportunity to hear some of the best writers of contemporary literature read on successive evenings. Featured authors include Australian fiction writer Cate Kennedy, winner of the Queensland Literary Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award; and poet Eduardo Corral, recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Award-winning Oregon coast author Melissa Eskue Ousley will launch the final book in her young adult series, The Solas Beir Trilogy, this July, kicking off a regional book tour. She will be reading from The Sower Comes at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, at a book launch party at Beach Books in Seaside (616 Broadway). For every book sold during the first week of its release (July 11-18), the author will donate one dollar to Clatsop Community College for student scholarships (up to $500) to assist students with financial need.

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Thank you for your strong support of the writing community. I wanted to let you know that registration is now open for the 2015 Sledgehammer 36-Hour Writing Contest, and we hope you'll spread the word to your members and friends. A web-ready graphic is attached here as well as a print-ready poster, so whether you reach your members online or in person, it's easy to show your support of Sledgehammer.

This year's contest will take place July 25–26, beginning with an online scavenger hunt that participants can complete from anywhere. Along the way, they'll collect four writing prompts, all of which must be incorporated into their story, which is due by midnight on Sunday. Writers can compete individually or as teams, and the contest is open to all ages.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the best short stories of the weekend in the following categories:

Winners will also receive entry to writing-related events and the coveted golden sledgehammers.
Registration is just $25 for adults and $10/$5 for youth. Visit www.sledgehammercontest.com to learn more and register.

This Saturday, June 13th, from 1 to 3 p.m., Award-winning Historical Fiction/Adventure writer Anne Sweazy-Kulju will be signing copies of her books, including latest release, "Grog Wars," at the Safeway Store, in Tillamook (across from the Pelican Brewery Tap Room).

Grog Wars is part I of a 2-Part Epic Oregon Trail story, and has just been nominated for a Global eBook Award. The book has also taken 1st place in WritersType.com 's international "First Chapter" contest, in March 2013, and has been awarded three "5-Star Review" medals from *Readers' Favorite Book Reviews*. Come and visit with the author and find out why she is called the B&B Innkeeper-turned-Psychic Storyteller!

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Spare Room presents

Michael Friedman
Sarah Mangold
Jeff Alessandrelli

Saturday, June 27, 7:00 pm

Mother Foucault's Bookshop*
523 SE Morrison

$5 suggested donation

Michael Friedman* is the author of the recently-published Martian Dawn & Other Novels (Little A) and two full-length books of poetry, including Species (The Figures), and four chapbooks. His work has appeared in several anthologies, including Great American Prose Poems (Scribner). Previously, he was the board chair of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, and an adjunct faculty member of Naropa University's MFA writing program. He is the cofounder of the literary journal Shiny, grew up in Manhattan, and lives in Denver.

Sarah Mangold is the author of the just-released Electrical Theories of Femininity (Black Radish) and Household Mechanics (New Issues). Her most recent chapbooks include The Goddess Can Be Recognized By Her Step (dusie kollektiv) and An Antenna Called The Body (LRL Textile Editions).
> From 2002-09 she edited Bird Dog, a print literary journal of innovative writing and art. She lives near Seattle.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of the full-length collection This Last Time Will Be the First. Other work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, and five chapbooks. The name of Jeff's dog is Beckett Long Snout; the name of his micro-press is Dikembe Press.

Artist, Meredith Dalglish, MFA, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA is presenting her newest work dealing with the emotional and physical issues of the heart."This is more personal work now," she says, which follows her former large scale art installations, with performance she previously did to heal the earth, at colleges, universities nationally and internationally, and in Miami, FL, where she was also an Artist in Education. "This work was created to deal with the entropic nature and fragility of the earth," she said. Her other art performances were done internationally, and she was invited to Sao Paulo, Brazil in '97 and '98, for example where Dalglish did her sound art with temporary art performance to bring attention to the problems of the slash and burn techniques to remove the trees in the Amazon Rainforest, she knows are called "the lungs of the earth."

About Me

I'm the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, a writing workbook. On my website at www.storyispromise.com I review movies, books, and plays to teach an understanding of how to write a movie script and how to write a novel. I recently retired as office manager of Willamette Writers, a
non-profit writers group in the Pacific Northwest with 1,350 members. I practice Kriya Yoga meditation and use it to explore how states of consciousness interact with creativity.